December 22nd, 2011 by KerriSparling in Opinion
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A few years ago, I connected with Kyrra Richards, creator of Myabetic, to highlight the completely adorable “Lovebug” meter case. She and I have talked a few times since, and I had the opportunity to reconnect with her at the Diabetes Sisters conference in San Diego back in October.
It was at that conference that I was able to check out her new project, Champ, in person. And it’s totally cool, in that “hey, let’s make my glucose meter case something that doesn’t suck” sort of way. I love it.
I asked Kyrra what the inspiration for Champ was, and she had this to say: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
October 2nd, 2011 by DeborahSchwarzRPA in News
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Ventricular Assist Devices (VADs) are small pumps that take over the work of the heart in pumping the blood through the body. Patients who need a heart transplant, but for whom there is no donor heart available, might be given a VAD for what’s called a bridge-to-transplant while they wait for a donor.
PediMag, the pediatric version of the adult device, CentriMag, is an external device designed for short-term use in infants with heart failure. PediMag can also be used to support children after heart transplant surgery if they experience organ rejection and need time for their hearts to rest and heal, according to Jonathan M. Chen, MD, Surgical Director of Pediatric Heart Transplantation at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York. Dr. Chen has extensive experience treating children with heart failure and has recently authored an account of his first successful use of the PediMag as a biventricular bridge-to-transplant in an infant.
The PediMag ventricular assist device is Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Columbia University Department of Surgery Blog*
September 30th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in Research
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Married men who have no children have a 17% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease after the age of 50 than men with two or more children. But whether that’s because of a physical cause, a sociological effect or self-selection (sick people may choose not to have kids) isn’t known.
To determine if the number of kids predicts cardiovascular death, researchers used data from the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study of nearly 135,000 men ages 50 to 71 without prior cardiovascular disease who were followed-up for an average of 10 years. That study mailed 3.5 million questionnaires from 1995 through 1996 to AARP members living in California, Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Louisiana or in Atlanta or Detroit. Nearly 586,000 people returned the questionnaire, which underwent follow-up surveys in 1996-1997 and 2004-2006. Results appeared online Sept. 26 in the journal Human reproduction.
Almost all (92%) men had Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
September 26th, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in Opinion
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My hat goes off to kiddy shrinks. It’s a tough field, full of issues we don’t see in adult psychiatry.
Our comment section often buzzes with talk about the over-diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and the ethics of giving psychotropic medications to children. The Shrink Rappers never comment on these things. Why? Because we don’t treat children. I have no idea if the children being treated are mis-diagnosed, over-diagnosed, wrongly-diagnosed, or if the increase in treatment represents a good thing—- perhaps children who would have suffered terribly now are feeling better due to the option of medications. I’ve certainly had adult patients tell me their children were treated with medications, the children have often eventually stopped the medications and emerged as productive adults. Would they have outgrown their issues anyway. Or did the treatment they received switch them from a bad place to a good place and enable them to carry on in a more adaptive way? Ugh, my crystal ball is on back-order at Amazon!
Why I’m Happy I’m Not A Child Psychiatrist: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
August 27th, 2011 by CodeBlog in Interviews
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Well, what better time to post my interview with Erin at Tales of a School Zoned Nurse than now, when everyone’s headed back to the classroom?
Erin is a school nurse in the “cash strapped state of California.” Her position covers two elementary schools and a middle school – almost 2000 students!! She has been blogging since last year and her blog has definitely become one of my favorites.
She says she was never too set on working in a hospital. After nursing school, she worked at a couple of summer camps, which gave her the idea to look into being a school nurse. She was hired right away and “leapt in without a second thought.” She is starting her second year in this position.
Erin’s daily schedule is quite varied: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at code blog - tales of a nurse*